BlogSnorkeller

Do they know the bigger picture?

While using celebrity to champion a cause is certainly no bad thing, Sting-like faux sincerity often hides the real issues. And while all the people involved in recording and buying the Band Aid re-release surely have mainly good intentions, the tambourine tin-wrattling is in danger of becoming an easy purge of a guilty collective-conscience.

This is brought into stark relief by comparing the money raised by the original record (£10m) with the amount paid by Ethiopia in debt payments between 1998 and 2001 (£290m). The impact of this debt payment is appalling, with Jubilee Research commenting:-

"If she had been able to use this money for improving the country’s agricultural sector and for introducing safeguards against droughts, the current crisis might have been avoidable. Considering this, the fact, that Ethiopia and other poor countries still have to spend a large amount of their revenues to service their external debt should no longer be tolerated by the international community."

Add the fact that the originally naive and slightly distasteful question of "Do they know it's Christmas?" is now completely misguided and it all seems a bit strange.

So, buy the record, because every bit makes a difference, but remember that it's your country and your bank that's responsible for the problem.

Here endeth the rant. (I still love the Bono bit, too).

The day the music died

With no-one left to stop Radio One's descent into a musical hell that's half bling, half bland now that JP is RIP, it was good to finally read a quote which summed up the bearded one's real genius;

"one of culture’s greatest facilitators has just stopped facilitating, and the music world will suffer".

It's from Julian Cope, another giant of all that's rich, deep and though-provoking in (un)popular music. Makes an alarming comparison to two articles discovered via Nick "Gravenhurst" Talbot's rather good blog, an old one from the sole reason to bring back the ducking stool and a new one from the current british dumbing down champion.

In other music news, my reports-from-the-field, or Iceland's Airwaves Festival to be more precise, are finally up on Speakers, covering Adem, Four Tet, Honeymoon and Trabant.